


Something There

by Daerwyn



Category: Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gaston-bashing, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-24
Updated: 2013-08-24
Packaged: 2017-12-23 21:23:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/931240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daerwyn/pseuds/Daerwyn





	Something There

"These halls used to sparkle with the gowns of guests," Lumiere insisted as he hopped along the floor at Belle's feet. Belle gazed into the dark, frigid hall. She couldn't see how it would ever sparkle. The sun didn't shine on these parts of the castle and the torches were few and far between, casting long shadows that flickered as they walked past. She could see how the castle could seem haunted.

"Guests?"

"Oh, to the ball, of course!" Lumiere cried with exuberance. "Feasts, dancing, singing, music, and more dancing." He sighed suddenly, the lights on the edges of where he would have hands were he human gesturing widely as he tried to explain. "Oh, it was so joyous then!"

"What happened?" Belle asked, her eyes dropping to the small figure. He gazed sadly upon the hall before them, the clinks of his metal base echoing in the silent hall as he thought back. Belle didn't know how long such an event had happened. But by the state of things, it had to have been years ago. Perhaps a decade.

"Everything changed," Lumiere said sadly. "We changed."

They changed? "What do you mean? All those people... wouldn't they still want to come back? A ball is a ball- I'd imagine the family that lived here was prestigious... an invite to someplace like this couldn't have been ignored," Belle insisted, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear as they turned down another hall.

"Oh, of course not!" Lumiere cried suddenly. "A royal invitation was a crime to ignore!" 

"Royal?" Belle asked, confused. "But the portrait in the... the West Wing. That wasn't the prince. The Valois prince died when he was ..." She tried to think back to when she was a child. "Eight, I think. That portrait was of a man in his late teens, perhaps twenties."

"Seventeen," Lumiere stated simply. "There was another prince, an older brother. The black sheep of the family that now exists no longer."

"The plague."

Lumiere nodded once, his flames flickering. "With their death, the invitations to the ball was at an end. The eight year old prince, the mother, the father... gone. The seventeen year old prince grew bitter and spiteful, snapping at all of the servants. And then... he disappeared."

Belle processed that quietly. She hadn't heard of the older prince... not that she could remember. He was born a few years before her, so she doubted that she would hear much about the fanfare that came with a new royal. "And when he disappeared, the balls and visitors disappeared as well? Then how did you and the Beast, and everyone else begin to reside here?"

Lumiere gave her a rather sad smile. "That's a tale for another time. We're at your room, mon chere."

Bella glanced at the white wood of her door, inlaid with gold. "Thank you, Lumiere, for walking me." 

"My pleasure," he bowed with all the grace a candlabra could possess. She giggled and opened her door, curtsying back. "I will tell Master you'll be at breakfast."

"Goodnight," Belle told the object kindly. 

"Bon soir," he returned, letting her shut the door. 


End file.
